Aspire candidate Kabir Ahmed wiped the floor with the Labour Party in Weavers ward yesterday with a 1,204 vote victory.
Congratulations Councillor Kabir Ahmed!
Labour’s Nasrin Khan trailed a very distant second with 742 votes.
Samia Hersi summed up the situation well in her tweet saying the Weavers by-election is the beginning of the Tower Hamlets Labour collapse and the return of Lutfur Rahman, and that this is what happens when you ignore and fail to speak up for the community you are supposed to represent and instead pursue ideology.
Yeah, that’s about it Samia.
Weavers ward election results
| Candidate | Party | Votes |
|---|---|---|
| Kabir AHMED | Aspire | 1,204 |
| Nasrin KHAN | Labour | 742 |
| Elliott WEAVER | Conservative | 360 |
| Nathalie Sylvia BIENFAIT | Green | 205 |
| Emanuel Tomislav ANDJELIC | Lib Dem | 50 |
| Hugo PIERRE | Trade Union & Socialist Coalition | 30 |
The Conservative’s Elliott Weaver came in third with a respectable 360 votes with Nathalie Sylvia Bienfait of the Green Party not doing too badly at all with 205.
Lib Dem Emanuel Andjelic managed to get 50 and the Trade Union & Socialist Coalition’s Hugo Pierre last with 30.
Weavers result is Biggs legacy
“It’s a disaster, I have been telling Biggs and his confidants that they have been constantly failing to read the community’s pulse since 2018,” said one Labour councillor.
“The open selection contest was people trading jobs in a desperate show of loyalty to the lost Biggs brand. The Weavers result is Biggs legacy.”
Cllr Puru Miah went into reflection mode as usual with this thread.
While Cllr. Kevin Brady came up with this. ‘Always the pervasive way?’ What does that even mean?
EEE Analysis
Is anyone surprised by this result? Kabir Ahmed has a reputation as a hard working councillor and his demolition of Nasrin Khan, an unpopular Labour choice who was accused of not knowing Weavers, was the logical outcome of an unequal contest.
The controversial Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) featured heavily on the doorstep, this Labour defeat reflecting residents views of Tower Hamlets Labour’s blind adherence to a flawed idea with little support from anyone without a love for Lycra.
Will the LTNs now be stopped? Doubtful. LTNs are the only thing Labour has to offer voters in the borough but are no substitute for building houses or keeping frontline services open.
Or maybe dipping into that £500,000,000 that LBTH has in the bank losing interest?
We predict that Mayor Biggs will make the politically fatal error of taking the Weavers result as personal criticism of him, not a verdict on the actions of his party, and carry on exactly as before.
Kabir Ahmed won fair and square and showed that when residents are given a choice between Lutfur Rahman or the current Executive Mayor they will vote for Rahman.
And who can blame them? Not us.
We wonder how many Labour councillors who glibly supported Biggs during the recent open selection votes are now beginning to realise which way the wind is blowing?
Not many.
